the truth is always subversive

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All too often, the phrase "corporate free press" is something of an oxymoron. Whether to maximise sales, to attract advertisers, or simply to promote the interests of their wealthy owners, the mass media open strange, self-serving and grossly distorted windows onto the world.

This website is another window. Here you'll find documentaries, lectures and interviews following a different editorial line.

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Archive for the ‘comedy’ Category

A Channel 4 drama (72 mins) starring Robert Lindsay as the ex-PM, in characteristic denial about his impending war crimes tribunal. I finally got around to watching this and found it surprisingly poignant. It really stands out not for its quality, but for its willingness, exceptional among the broadly sycophantic media, to refer to Blair as what he undeniably is: a war criminal.

I’ve stopped getting spam from eBay about early Christmas shopping, and started getting spam from eBay about last-minute Christmas shopping. ‘Tis well and truly the season, then, to stand up to the relentless pressure upon us to consume, consume, consume through the pre-Xmas rush. Here’s two short films and an even shorter stand-up clip that I hope will offset and allay some of that stress.

The Production Of Meaning

From Adbusters (h/t Openmedia), this is a bit too stylish and unsubstantial for my taste (as is the Buy Nothing Day initiative), but it’s enjoyable enough and should put some of the constant background hum of advertising into perspective. 15 minutes.

The Story Of Stuff

Consumer-capitalism made very very simple, in a cute 21 minute animation by Annie Leonard (h/t ReclaimingSpace). Finally, a TAYT video you can watch with all the family.

Bill Hicks on Marketing

If you only have time for one of these clips, here’s a stand-up gem from the late Bill Hicks that you owe it to yourself to watch – especially if you work in marketing. 3 minutes.

A bizarre but compelling examination of humour in the Third Reich (58 mins). At first this was tolerated, and even encouraged – back then, no-one took the Nazis too seriously, and the more people were snickering the less they were rising up – but as the war drew on jokes became a channel for subversive informationand dissent, and by the end laughter out of turn was cracked down upon severely.

How do you get inside an arms dealers’ convention to stare at the torturers and murderers of the world’s nastiest regimes? If you’re comedian Mark Thomas, you set up a small, specialist PR company and offer them free media training workshops – getting some groundbreaking confessions along the way. Comedy with an edge (about 40 mins; h/t Heathlander, the latest target of Bill O’Reilly’s unfocused rage)